May / Shall / Cemetery

Back in October or so we had some vandalism in the City Cemetery off of College Street. The vandals toppled over a couple of monuments that had been long standing. It's a sad a fare, and Ms. Wallace mentioned to the city council that she wasn't even aware if there were any living survivors to these who were buried there.

Mrs. Leifeste read letter to editor here has gone to the council requesting the council pay the $900 to have these monuments restored. In it she quoted State Law (Health & Safety Code, Title 8), "authorizes a municipality to regulate, improve, enclose and be a permanent trustee for the perpetual maintenance of the lots and graves in the cemetery."

The council rightly pointed out that just because it's 'authorized' didn't mean the city was in any way shape or form obligated to. There is a big difference being 'authorized' to do something and mandated to do something, and honestly our city has enough on it's plate without taking on perpetual care of our cemeteries. I personally believe that our city (both the staff and council) have taken the correct stance on this issue.

Now with that being said, it falls back to the citizens of Gonzales to take care of these things, NOT our city government. Several local citizens have already stepped up and pledged money to help cover the $900 cost of repairing the historical monuments in our cemetery. I believe we are over 30% in covering the cost, but need to hit 100% to get these repaired.

This blog averages about 500 hits a week. If everyone kicked in a couple of dollars this would be paid for immediately. Ok, but we know that's not going to happen. So I'm making an appeal to my readership to help out. Let's do what good citizens do in these cases, we take care of things. So far we've had donations from $25 - $100. But even $5 and $10 donations add up quickly, especially for the small amount we're talking about.

So if you're so inclined, please send donations to:

Solansky Monument Company
5233 US 183 North
Gonzales, TX 78629

Please annotate the check with "repair of vandalized stones" and if you'd like put a 'in memory of _______'.

When we reach the $900 Mr. Solanskys shop will do the work. The sooner we reach this the sooner the work can be done. Please consider making your donation today.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser